Development and Application of Land Mammal Ages in North America and Europe, a Comparison

Abstract

During the last century the geologic time scale was developed from a sequential array of fossiliferous marine deposits, primarily in Europe. Prior to the last century the concept of geologic time was addressed by numerous natural scientists, including Steno, Buffon, Hutton, and Smith. With subsequent refinements, this time scale is now widely accepted as the chronologic framework for all geologic and biologic events in earth history. However, with rare exceptions (e.g., the Paris Basin) the application of this framework to continental sediments has been difficult because continental deposits are usually less extensive, superposition is more difficult to demonstrate, and interdigitation of marine and nonmarine rocks are rare. Because of these factors, vertebrate paleontologists have made few contributions to the development of the geologic time scale, even though their contributions to the concept of organic evolution has been significant.

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